Clive Lloyd's West Indies became the first touring side to win every Test of a five-match series in England, sweeping the home team 5-0 in a result that was instantly nicknamed the 'Blackwash'.
England had been beaten home and away by West Indies through the early 1980s but had never been whitewashed in a five-Test home series.
Selectors recalled Andy Lloyd for his debut at Edgbaston; he was struck on the temple by Marshall in the first Test and never played Test cricket again, setting the tone for the series.
England arrived at the 1984 series under David Gower confident that the home conditions would blunt the West Indies pace battery. Instead, Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Michael Holding and Eldine Baptiste produced one of the most sustained intimidatory bowling performances in Test history. Marshall finished with 24 wickets, Garner with 29, and Holding chimed in with key spells. With the bat, Gordon Greenidge struck a famous 214 not out at Lord's to chase 342 in 66 overs. Viv Richards scored a run-a-ball 117 at Old Trafford. Larry Gomes weighed in with two centuries. Every England innings was conducted at the wrong end of a four-pronged barrage that allowed batsmen no respite — the over rates, by today's standards, were leisurely and the bouncer rules permissive. The 5-0 scoreline, coined 'Blackwash' by the Caribbean press, established the Lloyd era as the most dominant in Test history and inflicted a psychological wound on English cricket that took the better part of a generation to heal.
Andy Lloyd hit on debut by Marshall at Edgbaston
Greenidge 214* at Lord's chasing 342 in 66 overs
Marshall taking 7/53 at Old Trafford with a broken thumb later in the year
Larry Gomes hundreds at Lord's and Headingley
Holding's hostile spells at The Oval to seal the 5-0
First Test, Edgbaston
WI win by an innings; Andy Lloyd hospitalised
Second Test, Lord's
Greenidge 214*; WI win by 9 wickets
Third Test, Headingley
WI win by 8 wickets
Fourth Test, Old Trafford
WI win by an innings and 64
Fifth Test, The Oval
WI win by 172 runs to seal 5-0
“We were beaten by a great side, and we were beaten in every department.”
“Blackwash. That was the only word for it.”
Tony Greig wrote that England had been 'comprehensively outclassed in every department' and the term Blackwash entered cricket's vocabulary.
A definitive statement of West Indian supremacy and the high-water mark of Lloyd's pace-quartet era.
The 1984 result, followed by another 5-0 in the Caribbean in 1985-86, fixed the Lloyd-era West Indies as the benchmark of Test dominance for the next two decades.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.